My Story

aboutmeraceI have a penchant for running (in case you hadn’t noticed). It keeps my waistline in check and clears my mind. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been able to conjure up solutions to stubborn issues, reconstruct news features that I’m working on, compose speeches and produce ideas for projects while pounding through the streets and parks of my neighborhood. (Confession: I sometimes keep a tiny notepad and pencil tucked away in my running shorts or jacket so as to not lose any train of thought.) When my feet leave the ground and my body thrusts forward, well, it’s the closest thing to flying.

I have nine marathons, including Boston, under my belt. And I would have had more had it not been for two torn labrums in the hip joint a few years ago. (O.K., I might have over-trained just a little.) My experience with this injury and the long, recovery process prompted me to create for fellow sufferers a content-rich informational website on hip impingement.

I continue to run now that I’m all healed up, but I’ve opted to expand my fitness repertoire – just in case – to include other endurance sports, like cycling/spinning, rowing, swimming, hiking and kayaking. Cross training makes me feel alive and focused, too.blurace copy

When I’m not doing all these physical things, I’m working out my mind, so to speak. Truth is, I love to create stuff. And I can lose all sense of time while fashioning a blog post, shooting and editing video and photos (landscapes are my specialty, as you can see from this website) and building animated apps. I discovered an innate knack for technology while enrolled in a master’s program for Interactive Media. (Confession No. 2:  I wasn’t always this way. In fact, I used to keep new gadgets in their boxes for a few days or even weeks while working up the courage to try them out.)

Now, as technology continues to evolve and improve, especially within the news media, I intend to be there right along with it. With the ink barely dry on my master’s diploma, I am already thinking of the next program to pursue or courses to take to further hone my skills or to learn new ones. I don’t ever want to stop learning – or striving to be better.

There’s never a finish line for this chica!

My Skills

Writing/Editing

This is my bailiwick. Just plug my name into the Google search engine and you will find my articles among the thousands of results. Multiply that by, say, 1,000 and you’ll get a rough idea of the number of stories I’ve also edited over the years. My specialty is real estate, personal finance,  business and service journalism, and I also have written about health and fitness. But I can (and have!) done it all – hijackings to high finance, as I like to say. And through my career I have received numerous awards and accolades.

Web Design

During my master’s program in Interactive Media, I discovered another passion (besides writing): designing and building websites. A good site must be responsive to every device on which it is viewed, but most important, it must be created with the user in mind. I’ve spent the last few years studying user-centered design, from data gathering for user and stakeholder requirements to usability testing to implementing the tools of information architecture like personas, wireframes, site maps and whiteboards.

Basic Code

Anyone who works online should have a familiarity with basic code. I have studied HTML and CSS (as well as media queries for mobile design) and feel fairly comfortable with these core technologies so crucial for building Web pages. It certainly has come in handy while tinkering and tweaking in content management systems like WordPress. I am proficient in Flash animation Actionscript 2.0 and am knowledgeable about AS 3.0. I also have a working knowledge of jQuery, PHP and MySQL.

Video Production

I’ve spent most of my career telling stories and painting pictures with words. But I love seeing how my ideas and imaginations can truly come to life through video. It’s not as easy as it looks, I have found, but well worth all the time and energy I’ve put into each of my projects, from finding the right audio to transitioning to special effects. I am fairly proficient in Adobe Premiere Pro video editing as well as After Effects. I have also worked frequently in Garage Band and Audacity for audio editing.

See My Résumé
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